Steam Deck competitor, the ASUS ROG Ally, is set to release sooner than many in the industry expected. In an announcement Tuesday morning, ASUS confirmed that its latest entry in the gaming handheld race is set to launch on May 11th. Following its initial April Fool’s announcement, ASUS set the stage for the ROG Ally as a serious competitor for the Steam Deck with it being powered by AMD’s newest Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, the strongest AMD has ever produced. PC Gamer was provided more information on the ROG Ally during its recent interview with ASUS, including confirmation on some of the handheld’s features as well as an estimated release price.

ASUS says its upcoming ROG Ally handheld gaming PC will be “below $1,000.” The top Steam Deck is priced at $649, so it’ll be interesting to see where Asus lands on May 11th https://t.co/PYBbcTvG9P pic.twitter.com/fZsI0OvsjH

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 25, 2023

According to PC Gamer, ASUS confirmed the ROG Ally’s processor as the Zen 4 CPU and an RDNA 3 GPU which runs on the Ryzen Z1, a “cut down version” of AMD’s Ryzen 7 7840U mobile APU. ASUS went into more detail on the Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip. The chip comes with eight cores, 16 threads and “three times the number of RDNA 3 compute units than the standard Z1 chip”.

The ROG Ally’s 7-inch 1080p screen is being promised with a 7ms response time and AMD FreeSync compatibility, along with a 500 nits peak brightness. ASUS also confirmed the screen having tough Corning Gorilla Glass and DX anti-glare coating, and Windows 11 compatibility.

ASUS also confirmed adding its own game launcher to the Armoury Crate software used in the ROG ecosystem in the ROG Ally. ASUS explained that the launcher would be a decent way to tackle the UI issues when navigating handhelds, by scanning the system for installed games and brings them all together under one unified UI.

Lastly, ASUS hinted at the ROG Ally’s initial price, and unfortunately for many gamers, it’s not cheap, telling PC Gamer that the ROG Ally will be “200%” below $1,000. More information will more than likely be presented at the May 11th launch event for the ROG Ally, in a panel discussion led by ASUS Project Management Director of Gaming Business Shawn Yen, Head of Xbox Hardware Roanne Sones, and AMD Cheif Architech of Gaming Solutions and Marketing Frank Azor.

Microsoft’s head of Xbox devices will be part of the ASUS ROG Ally handheld launch on May 11th. I’d doubt it’s much more than the usual partner stuff, but I sure hope Microsoft is seriously considering tailoring its Windows UI for Steam Deck competitors pic.twitter.com/7KknbfYMPY

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) April 25, 2023